Good News: Maharashtra Govt orders No Rent Collection from People for Three Months

Sumit Singh

Pune, April 17, 2020: In a major relief to people living on rent, the state government has instructed landlords not to remove them from homes if they are unable to pay rent due to COVID19 lockdown. All offices, business establishments are closed due to Coronavirus outbreak.

Additional Chief Secretary (Housing) Sanjay Kumar issued an order in this regard today. “All economic activities are closed due to the lockdown till May 3. People have no means of earning. Hence, they are not able to pay rent on time. They are already facing COVID19 pandemic and they should not be burdened financially. Therefore, all house owners in Maharashtra are ordered to postpone rent collection for three months. During this period, no tenant should be evicted from the rented house due to non-payment of rent”, states the order.

Many people especially students have been complaining that their landlords (house owners) are threatening to throw them out of homes if rent is not paid on time. They had appealed to the district collector as well as state government. Now, the rent postponement order has come as measure relief to them.

According state health department officials, there are 288 new COVID19 cases and 7 more deaths today. Total coronavirus cases in the state stand at 3,204 and deaths at 194. Across India, number of Coronavirus Positive 13,387 out of which 11,201 are still undergoing treatment, while 1748 have been cured and 437 people have died.

“We have been witnessing average growth factor at 1.2 since April 1 which stood at 2.1 (average) between March 15- March 31. Hence, there is 40 per cent decline in average growth factor even as we increased #COVID19 testings. We are aiming to make 10 lakh RTPCR kits by the month of May indigenously. There are 1007 new COVID19 cases, 23 deaths reported in the last 24 hours”, said Lav Aggarawal, Joint Secretary, Union Health Ministry.